Ranger's Apprentice 12: The Royal Ranger (29 page)

Will turned to Gatt abruptly. ‘Thanks for your time, Farmer Gatt. We’ll trouble you no longer. You can get back to your work.’

Gatt looked surprised, and his bad mood lifted a little. He’d expected the Ranger to keep him here for hours, asking pointless questions. Now he found himself free to go about his business. But perversely, his curiosity was
piqued. He’d noticed the way Will had been studying the tracks.

‘So have you found something?’ he asked. ‘Any clue as to what happened?’

Will shook his head. ‘Probably as you said. His horse stumbled and he fell. Just an accident.’

‘Oh . . . well then . . .’ Gatt still hesitated. He didn’t want to be left out if there was something significant to be known.

Will nodded to him. ‘We won’t bother you further,’ he said.

‘Right. I’ll be off then,’ Gatt said. He turned his horse away and set it into a lumbering trot, heading back to his farm. As he rode away, he turned in his saddle several times to look at them. Will waved to him as he did. Finally, when he had rounded a bend in the track and was lost to view, Maddie spoke.

‘So did you find something?’

Will nodded, and gestured for her to join him. They walked back down the track for ten metres and he pointed to the ground. ‘Look at the tracks Acorn left.’

‘Acorn?’ Maddie asked.

‘Liam’s horse. See here, as they lead up to these trees, his gait is smooth and even. From the length of his stride and the depth of the hoofprints, I’d say he was at a full gallop. But as he passes the trees, the tracks are all over the place. He’s lost his balance and he definitely stumbled.’

Tug snorted and Will looked quickly at him. ‘It happens,’ he said. Maddie was down on one knee, studying the tracks, and didn’t see that he’d addressed the comment
to the horse. Instead, she rose and turned towards the nearest of the two trees.

‘I noticed something on one of the trees,’ she said. ‘It may be nothing but you should see it.’

‘Or it may be something,’ Will said. He followed her and looked where she was pointing. There was a faint scar in the bark of the tree, about half a metre above the ground.

‘Something cut the bark here,’ she pointed out.

Will raised his eyebrows. ‘Well spotted.’

She glanced up at him. ‘I didn’t think anything of it until you mentioned that Acorn seemed to lose his footing.’ She turned quickly and walked to the opposite tree. ‘Let’s see if there’s a corresponding mark on this one.’

There was but it was very faint. If they hadn’t known to look for it, they might never have seen it. Will reached forward to touch it. There was a small piece of thin white thread sticking to the bark. He plucked it free.

‘Could be fibre from a rope,’ he said. He looked up and down the track, then at the tree opposite them. ‘So let’s say Liam is galloping along this track full tilt . . .’

‘Chasing someone perhaps,’ Maddie suggested and he nodded.

‘That’s not unreasonable. And let’s say someone else has stretched a rope across the track between these two trees. Acorn hits it and stumbles, only just retaining his footing.’

‘But the stumble is enough to throw Liam clear of the saddle and he pitches onto the ground up here . . .’ Maddie walked quickly to where Gatt had told them he found Liam’s body. ‘And he’s killed in the fall.’

‘That would explain the marks on the trees,’ Will said thoughtfully. ‘As Acorn hit the rope, it would have cut into the bark with the impact.’

They looked at each other in silence for a moment. Then Will spoke.

‘Someone wanted Liam dead,’ he said quietly.

Maddie pursed her lips. ‘They couldn’t be sure the fall would kill him,’ she said.

‘True. But he would have been incapacitated – knocked out or winded by the fall. And they would have been ready to finish him off.’

‘Of course we can’t be sure,’ Maddie said. ‘It’s just a few jumbled hoofprints and a faint mark on a tree. That could have been caused by anything.’

‘We need to have a close look at Acorn. If he hit that rope at any sort of speed, there’ll be bruising or cuts on his legs,’ Will said.

‘Where would he be now?’ Maddie asked.

‘Most likely in the stables at Castle Trelleth,’ Will said. ‘The horsemaster would have taken him in to care for him after Liam’s death.’ He leaned back, stretching his back muscles, cramped from so much stooping and kneeling.

‘Time we paid a call on Baron Scully,’ he said.

In the event, he visited the castle alone, leaving Maddie at the small Ranger cabin set in the woods below the castle.

‘Don’t know this Scully person,’ he said. ‘But there’s always the chance that he’s been at Castle Araluen and he might recognise you. If that’s so, then he’ll want to entertain you at the castle. And then the whole countryside will know about your presence here in the next twenty-four hours.’

Maddie nodded, understanding. ‘And that would make it difficult for us to investigate,’ she said.

‘Very difficult. It’s better if we can keep a low profile. Plus I don’t want too many people knowing who you really are. It’s a matter of your safety.’

‘That’s fine by me,’ Maddie said. She was becoming weary of the way people stared at her when they realised she was a girl – and an apprentice Ranger. If the fact that she was a princess was added in, the curiosity would get out of hand. ‘I’ll stay in the cabin.’

‘Take a look through Liam’s papers while you’re here,’ Will told her. ‘There might be some clue as to what he was on to.’

Ranger cabins were all built to two basic designs. Liam’s was almost identical to the one Maddie shared with Will and she felt comfortable there. As Will had instructed, she went through the papers on Liam’s small desk to see if there was any clue as to the reason for his death. But she found nothing. It was almost dusk when she heard Bumper whinny from the stable behind the cabin. Then Tug answered and a few minutes later Will rode up through the trees.

‘Well, we’ve got our answer,’ he said. ‘Acorn was limping when they recovered him. He had a cut on his right foreleg. The horsemaster said he assumed Acorn had stumbled and injured himself, throwing Liam off. But it could have been caused by his hitting a rope.’

‘So Liam’s death was definitely no accident,’ she said.

‘It would appear not. Now all we have to do is find out why someone would want to kill him. He must have
chanced upon something. Must have seen something going on.’

‘Should we tell Gilan?’ she asked and he nodded.

‘I’ll send a message pigeon from the castle tomorrow. But I know what he’ll say. He’ll want us to nose around and find out what’s going on. No sense in having crowds of people coming in here to investigate. That’ll just tip our hand to whoever killed Liam. Better for us to do it quietly.’

He paused, then a thought struck him as his gaze fell on the desk and the papers crowded there.

‘Anything in his papers?’ he asked.

Maddie shook her head. ‘Nothing I could see.’

‘Hardly surprising. If he was on the trail of something, he wouldn’t leave his paperwork in full view. He’d have it well hidden.’

Maddie glanced round the little living room. There seemed to be nowhere that would serve as a hiding place.

‘Where would he do that?’ she asked.

In answer, Will rose and paced along the centre of the living room floor, his eyes down, studying the boards on either side. He stopped, staring at one point off to the left. Then he stepped towards it, went down on one knee and drew his saxe knife.

He rapped on the boards with the hilt, working in a semi-circle. On the fourth rap, the boards sounded hollow and he gave a small grunt of satisfaction. Then he inserted the tip of the saxe into a narrow join between two boards and levered.

There was a groan of wood rubbing on wood, and a small trapdoor was levered open, exposing a hidden, wood-lined cavity below the floor. He looked up at Maddie.

‘All our cabins have a strongbox,’ he said by way of explanation. ‘It’s just a matter of spotting where it is.’

He reached into the cavity and produced a thin sheaf of papers, enclosed in a folder and wrapped with a green ribbon.

‘Now what do we have here?’ he said.

THEY MOVED TO
the table and sat side by side as Will laid out the contents of the hidden strongbox.

The first item was a rough map of the area surrounding Castle Trelleth. It had been quickly sketched, presumably by Liam, and showed little in the way of geographical features. But there were three villages marked on the map, all some distance from the castle. Beside each, a person’s name was neatly written.

Maddie leaned forward, elbows on the table, and looked at the name nearest her.

‘Boyletown, Peter Williscroft,’ she said, reading from the map. ‘Who’s Peter Williscroft and what does he have to do with Boyletown?’

Will shook his head. ‘And who’s Carrie Clover, and what is she doing in Danvers Crossing? And what does Maurice Spoker have to do with Esseldon?’

They looked at the map for several seconds, as if expecting the answer to become clearer.

‘Maybe they’re the headmen of those villages?’ Maddie suggested.

Will tapped the name on the second village they had mentioned. ‘Carrie Clover would be a woman,’ he said.

Maddie grunted. She’d never heard of a village electing a head woman, although it was possible.

‘Maybe she was his wife?’ she suggested.

‘Maybe.’ Will didn’t sound convinced. Again they sat silently, considering the puzzle. Finally, Maddie spoke.

‘What else was in the strongbox?’

There were two other sheets. Will unfolded the first and smoothed it out. It was a list of the three villages marked on the maps, with details of the relative sizes of each.

‘All about the same size,’ he said. ‘Large villages. Not large enough to call a town. Or to have any elected law officers.’

As villages grew into towns, they became more organised. Sheriffs were appointed to keep the peace. And a town watch was usually recruited to carry out the sheriff’s orders. Smaller villages tended to do without such hierarchy.

‘That might be significant,’ Maddie said. ‘What’s that final sheet?’

Will unfolded the third piece of paper and his eyebrows rose as he read its contents. He moved the list of villages aside to study the map once more, then sat back, thinking hard.

Maddie leaned over to study the final sheet of paper.

‘These are the names of the people from the three villages,’ she said.

‘And they’re not headmen or councillors,’ Will replied. ‘Look: Peter Williscroft, twelve, and a date that’s three
weeks ago. Then Carrie Clover, fourteen, and another date. Five days after the one for Peter Williscroft.’

‘And Maurice Spoker, four days after Carrie. He’s eleven,’ Maddie said.

‘What do the dates mean?’ Will said.

‘Maybe they’re birthdays,’ Maddie suggested.

Will screwed up his lips, looking doubtful. ‘Maybe. If so, they were all born around the same time. But in different years.’

‘Maybe something happened to these children,’ Maddie suggested.

Will looked at her. ‘Like what?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe they died. Or went missing. Something like that.’

‘Possibly. It’s a dangerous world, after all. There are wolves in this part of the country. And you still see the occasional bear.’

‘Let’s assume I’m right for a moment,’ Maddie said, ‘and they’re dead or missing. Why hasn’t anyone seen a link between three children from three villages in the same fief who have gone missing in the space of two weeks?’

‘They’re probably unaware of it. Look how widely separated they are. The people in, say, Danvers Crossing are probably upset about Carrie Clover. But they’d have no idea that two other children of similar ages have disappeared from two other villages. There’s not a lot of communication between villages like this.’

‘How did Liam know?’ Maddie asked.

Will shrugged. ‘It’s part of a Ranger’s job to know what’s going on in a fief. We travel round the villages, collecting news and information, looking for unusual events. He probably saw this pattern across the three villages.’

‘And someone killed him before he could do anything about it,’ Maddie said.

Will held up a cautioning hand. ‘That’s assuming that these three are missing, or dead, or that something bad has happened to them. There could be a lot of explanations for those dates.’

‘Such as?’

‘Such as I don’t know.’

‘But think about it, Will. It must be something like that. After all, Liam went to the trouble of hiding those names and dates in his strongbox. So they must mean something important. And somebody killed him. He must have been asking questions about those three kids and whoever took them found out about it – and arranged his accident.’

‘It’s a reasonable hypothesis,’ he admitted, ‘but that’s all it is.’ Maddie had a vivid imagination and he needed to rein it in. All too often with a situation like this, there was a temptation to arrange the evidence to suit the theory, and ignore any that didn’t fit.

‘Let’s not jump to any conclusions,’ he continued. ‘I think it’s time we did a little investigating. I’ll need to get some equipment from the castle first thing.’